University of Brighton

History

• The university's academic roots date back to the mid-19th century in Brighton and the mid-20th century in Eastbourne.
• Originally founded in 1859, Brighton became a university in 1992.

Notable alumni

• DJ Norman Cook (Fatboy slim).
• Jo Whiley (DJ and TV presenter).
• Martin Webb (millionaire entrepreneur and presenter).
• David Stone (gold medal-winning Paralympic cyclist).
• Rachel Whiteread (artist and Turner Prize winner 1998).
• Keith Tyson (artist and Turner Prize winner 2002).
• Peter Keen OBE (coach to the British Olympic cycling team.
• Julien Macdonald OBE (fashion designer).

Location and transport

• The University of Brighton is a multi-campus university. There are three sites in Brighton at Grand Parade, Moulsecoomb and Falmer, one main site in Eastbourne and one in Hastings.
• Transport links across Sussex, to London, mainland Europe and further afield are excellent. There is also a great local bus service or students can use their bikes.
• Brighton is student-friendly location offering a world-famous social life with clubs, pubs, restaurants, cinemas and of course there's the beach.
• All three towns are situated by the sea and have their own distinct character. Each offers many cultural and leisure opportunities, with something for everyone.

Entry standards

• Entry requirements vary. Full details can be found on the website.
• Applications are welcome from students with qualifications and experience outside the traditional A-level route.

Student mix

• Over 21,000 students. The student body is diverse, with many part-time and mature students.
• Students come from over 140 different countries.
• 60% female, 40% male.

Course flexibility

• Over 500 courses with 5,000 students graduating and prepared for careers in fields including medicine, architecture, business and pharmacy, sport science, education, engineering and fashion design.
• Courses are informed by the latest professional knowledge. Partners in industry and the professions contribute to course development and teaching. Staff combine professional practice with teaching and research activity. Many undergraduate courses are accredited by professional and statutory bodies.
• Almost all the courses involve workbased learning – with many offering the opportunity to spend a year on a paid professional placement.
• Course delivery and support services help you realise your career aspirations. Project work prepares students for professional life, and career planning provides focus from the start of your course.
• Many of our undergraduate courses are accredited or endorsed by professional or statutory bodies, an external endorsement of quality ensuring recognition by employers across the globe. These include the British Council, the General Medical Council, and the royal Institute of British Architects.
• We work with global, national and local businesses and organisations. These links enable us to anticipate trends and develop and deliver courses that meet changing professional and social needs.
• Project work prepares students for professional life, and career planning provides focus from the start of your course.
• Almost all of our courses provide opportunities for work-based learning, with many offering the opportunity to spend a year on a paid professional placement. Our students are working with household names like Channel 4, Disney and Microsoft. A placement year costs just £750 and could offer a salary of up to £10,000 – as well as recruitment and workplace experience, valuable contacts and a competitive advantage when you graduate.
• Our Careers Service is in regular contact with over 1800 businesses and organizations who post vacancies and attend our events and careers fairs.
• Careers workshops and mentoring, volunteering and entrepreneurship schemes build confidence and experience.

Teaching standards

• The university has been awarded five National Teaching Fellowships – in recognition of excellent teaching methods.
• The university achieved the highest possible outcome from the Quality Assurance Agency which reviews standards in higher education.
• Our courses are regulated and approved by over 50 professional, statutory and regulatory bodies.
• In 2011 more than 200 teaching and support staff were nominated by their students for the Brighton Students' Union Excellence Awards.
• The university gained an outstanding rating from Ofsted for its secondary and primary education provision.
  The university holds the Matrix Standard, recognising the quality of its student advice and guidance services.

Research standards

• The university achieved world-class rankings in research in subjects as diverse as biomedical sciences, art and design and European studies.
• In 2008 Brighton won more research funding from the Higher Education Funding Council for England than any other modern university.
• The University of Brighton was ranked as the leading modern university in terms of the quality of its research by Research Fortnight.

Academic strengths

• The university's medical school, the Brighton and Sussex Medical School, run jointly with the University of Sussex, receives more applications per place than any other medical school in the UK and was rated with 95% overall satisfaction in the 2011 National Student Survey.
• The university's particular strengths lie in art and design, linguistics and biomedical sciences as well as computer science, sports and education.

Student facilities, including library and computing

• Over 1,400 computers (both Macs and PCs) for students' use, located in libraries and computer rooms.

• Libraries contain over 600,000 books, journals and audio-visual materials and subscribe to around 15,600 e-journals.

• The virtual learning environment, Studentcentral, is an essential tool to help organize student life. It provides a portal customized for each student.

• State-of-the-art teaching facilities include internationally significant design archives, a radio station and TV studio, podiatric hospital, physiotherapy clinic, flight simulator, industrial textile looms, rapid prototyping facilities, a real-time trading room, human movement labs, molecular biology facilities, a dispensing pharmacy and two of the most powerful electron microscopes in South East England

Disability Services

Students' Union

• The union provides a range of services from organising events and entertainments to welfare advice and community volunteering projects, and making sure that students' views are represented at the university.
• There are numerous societies, clubs and events run by students.

Sport

• Excellent sports facilities across all sites with teams of qualified staff to support and guide students.
• The university has invested £7.6m on development sports facilities at the Falmer Campus. The centre has a six-court sports hall as well as a fitness gym and two activity studios.
• New £650,000 synthetic football pitch.
• Well-established sports scholarship scheme which has supported national and Olympic-level athletes.
• Sports teams have also had great success recently.

Recent/prospective new builds

• In the next two years the university will be investing almost £100m, with half of this investment intended for student accommodation and learning facilities.
• At the Falmer campus the £29-m Checkland Building is home for the schools of Education and Humanities.
• The £23-m Huxley Building at Moulsecoomb campus opened in 2010 and houses the majority of the university’s work in pharmacy and biosciences.
• Both the Checkland Building and Huxley Building feature green roofs and other sustainable design features.
• A new £7.6-m sports centre also opened at the Falmer campus in 2010.
• The university has invested over £300,000 in a new industry-standard radio and television studio at the Hastings campus.
• The Hastings campus is undergoing expansion with new teaching accommodation scheduled to open in 2012.
• Varley Halls of residence are underoing redevelopment to improve social and catering facilities and increase the number of rooms.

Availability of part-time work

• There is plenty of part-time work available and the university's Careers Centre Job Workshop is a good place to look for part-time and vacation work. Advice is also available on tax and national insurance.

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